Holder for flood lamps



F July 4, 1961 M a AUSTIN, JR 2,991,350

HOLDER FOR FLOOD LAMPS Original Filed May 31, 1950 MR Q ATTORNEYS United States Patent 2,991,350 HOLDER FOR FLOOD LAMPS Merritt B. Austin, Jr., Hillsborough, Calif., assignor to Stgne Manufacturing Co., Kenilworth, NJ., a corpora on Original application May 31, 1950, Ser. No. 165,203, now Patent No. 2,688,073, dated Aug. 31, 1954. Divided and this application July 1, 1954, Ser. No. 440,805

3 Claims. (Cl. 240--52) This invention relates to lamp holders, and particularly to holders for electric lamps for outdoor lighting known as reflector flood or spot lamps which have a shank and an enlarged bell end.

This application is a division of my application Serial No. 165,203 filed May 31, 1950, now Patent Number 2,688,073 issued August 31, 1954.

' Holders for lamps of this character are normally formed as a cup in which is firmly mounted a socket for receiving the contact portion of the lamp. The lip of the cup is usually designed to engage the bell portion of the lamp envelope, and is normally provided with a ring of soft or resilient material which cushions the glass lamp envelope and which is compressed slightly thereby to provide a tight closure for the open end of the cup, thus largely preventing access of moisture to the interior thereof.

While the lamps to be used with such holders have been substantially standardized, there are variations between lamps made by diiferent makers which, while slight, are still sufiicient to cause difiiculty. It has been found, for example, that a holder designed accurately for the lamps with the shortest shanks (or with large bells) will not properly weather-seal against the bell portion of the envelope of a long shank (or small bell) lamp, while a holder designed for lamps with the longest shanks (or smallest bells) is not penetrated suificiently by the short shank (or large bell) lamps for them to touch the center bottom contact of the socket. A compromise holder fails to work with full satisfaction using lamps of 1 either extreme. Under whatever circumstances or specifications such lamp holders were being constructed, it is apparent that tolerances had to be very accurately held in order to furnish a product which would accept the lamp or range of lamp sizes for which it was designed. It is an object of this invention therefore, to provide a lamp holder capable of readily handling reflector flood or spot lamps of varying shank lengths or bell diameters, and which accordingly requires a minimum of accuracy in manufacture with corresponding reduction in cost.

In order to achieve the foregoing object the invention includes a lamp holder comprising a cup in which the lamp socket is floatingly mounted and resiliently urged away from the cup opening.

Another object of the invention is the attainment of the foregoing objects without complication, and preferably with simplification, of the assembly procedure employed in fabrication of the lamp holder. This object is eifected in one form of the invention by providing a single large helical spring surrounding the socket and assemblable therewith.

A further object of the invention is the provision of an adapter element for attachment to the base of a conventional socket which will convert the same for use as a floating socket in the improved lamp holder.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a lamp holding assembly having a resiliently urged floating socket in which the resilient urging of the socket is employed to effect a firm pressure of predetermined amount on the cushioning ring between the lip of the holder cup and the bell portion of the lamp envelope in Patented July 4, 1961 order to minimize the likelihood of moistures gaining access to the interior of the cup.

Additional features and advantages will hereinafter appear.

In the accompanying drawing:

FIGURE 1 is an elevation in central section of a lamp holder according to the invention and illustrating a lamp positioned therein.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on line 22 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an adapter member for use with the socket of the lamp holder.

In the form of the invention illustrated, the lamp holder comprises a cup 10a, preferably cast as a single unit, and including the integral depending car 12. The cup 10: is hingedly mounted by means of said car 12 on the usual hollow support bracket 14 by means of the bolt 16. Bracket 14 and ear 12 are hollow, and provided with communicating apertures to accommodate the electric conductors 18 leading from the lamp socket in the usual way. The lip of the cup 10a is flared at 20 and provided with a lamp seat in the form of a cushioning ring 22 of soft or resilient material designed for engagement with the bell portion 24 of the envelope of a reflector flood lamp 26 whose contact portion is disposed in the socket 28. The socket 28 may be of any suitable form to receive the contacting portion of a lamp 26.

The cup 10a is provided with a removable closure plate 58 held against the smaller end of the cup by suitable fasteners such as screws -60 fitted into suitable threaded openings in the ends of ribs 55a and 57a. Preferably a thin ring or sheet of gasket material 62 is introduced between the closure plate 58 and the end of the cup 1011 to provide a watertight seal at the joint. The socket 28 has attached to its base by means of screws 50, an adapter member 48a, see FIG. 3. The adapter member 48a has a surface which seats firmly against the bottom of socket 28 and includes abutment wings 52a which extendlaterally into position to receive the thrust of spring 46 as shown in FIG. 2. The wing portions 5211 are also provided with edge portions designed for sliding engagement with the surfaces of ribs 55a, 57a to prevent rotation of the socket assembly in the holder as particularly shown in FIG. 2. The face of the adapter member opposite to that which rests against the socket 223 has axially extending feet 56a which space the socket sufficiently from the inner surface of the closure member or an overlying gasket sheet to provide room for passage of the conductors 18. The spring 46 is disposed between the fixed abutment ring 36a and the abutment wings 52a on the adapter 48a, and operates to yieldingly hold the socket in its innermost position.

The device described, while requiring some machining of the seating surfaces for gasket 62 and tapping operations for the screws 60, is still very simple and economical to assemble. The assembly steps consist essentially of mounting the adapter 48a on the base of the socket, connecting conductors 18 to the socket terminals, placing the spring 46 around the socket, and dropping the socket and spring into the cup 10a from the rear end thereof. The closure plate 58 and gasket 62 are then put in place over the small end of the cup 10a and depressed to bring the surfaces into contact and slightly compress the spring 46, whereupon the screws 60 are driven home and the assembly is complete.

When the lamp 26 is to be installed in the holder, its contacting tip is inserted partially in the socket 28 and the lamp is rotated to thread the tip into the socket 28. At some point before contact is made with the bottom center contact at the socket the bell portion 24 of the envelope of the lamp 26 comes into contact with the cushtoning ring 22 and prevents further movement of the lamp 3 i to the left. Thereafter the socket 28 moves to the right against the urging of the spring 46 compressing the same and lifting the adapter 48:: out of contact with the plate 58. The spring 46, by urging the socket 28 inwardly simultaneously urges the bell portion 24 of the lamp against the cushioning ring 22 with a predetermined pressure, the value of which depends upon the characteristics of the spring 46 rather than upon the dimensions of the parts of the lamp holder or the tightness with which the lamp is screwed into the socket. In this way a uniform sealing pressure against the cushion 22 is obtained and moisture is more uniformly deterred from entering the interior of the cup 10a in all cases.

The floating mounting for the socket 28 provides for the installation of lamp 26 regardless of marked diiferences in shank length or bell diameter, and gives uniform results with all lamps regardless of their depth of penetration into the cup.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that the invention provides a lamp holder for reflector flood lamps which is capable of adapting itself to lamps with substantial variation in dimensions such as shank length and bell diameter, and that this valuable flexibility has been provided in a sturdy structure of such simplicity that it can be made and assembled with no sacrifice of economy. There is also provided a novel means for providing a predetermined pressure against the cushioning ring at the mouth of the holder to insure an intimate contact therewith without danger of excessive strain on the lamp envelope. A further novel feature provided by the invention includes an adapter which merely attaches to the conventional socket base and provides for attachment of the socket to the retracting spring as well as preventing rotation of the socket in the holder to permit threading of a lamp therein. This adapter also includes means for spacing the socket from the bottom of the holder cup to provide conductor access thereto.

Variations and modifications may be made within the scope of the claims and portions of the improvements may be used without others.

I claim:

1. A lamp holder comprising a cup having a lip adjacent its opening engageable with a portion of the envelope of a lamp to be mounted in the holder; a lamp socket assembly movably mounted in said cup with its opening directed towards the cup opening, said assembly including a socket member and a socket adapter having means for connection to the bottom of the socket memher, having an axially projecting foot spacing the socket member from the interior end surface of the cup to provide space for lamp energizing conductors leading from said socket, and further having a laterally projecting abutment; another abutment connected to said cup and positioned towards the cup opening with reference to said adapter abutment; and spring means disposed between said abutments for urging said socket away from the cup opening.

2. A lamp holder comprising a cup including a shell open at its ends and a removable closure for one end of the shell, said shell having a lip adjacent its other end engageable with a portion of the envelope of a lamp to be mounted in the holder; a lamp socket movably mounted in said cup with its opening directed towards said other end of the shell; an adapter forming an abutment on said socket adjacent its closed end; another abutment connected to said cup and positioned towards said other shell end with reference to said socket abutment; and spring means disposed between said abutments for urging said socket towards said one end of the shell.

3. A lamp holder comprising a cup including a shell open at its ends and a removable closure for one end of the shell, said shell having a lip adjacent its other end engageable with a portion of the envelope of a lamp to be mounted in the holder; a lamp socket movably mounted in said cup with its opening directed towards said other end of said shell; an adapter forming an abutment on said socket adjacent its closed end; another abutment integrally formed on the inner wall of said shell and positioned towards said other shell end with reference to said socket abutment; and a helical spring disposed between said abutments and surrounding said socket for urging the socket towards said one end of the shell, whereby said parts may be assembled merely by placing one end of the spring against the shell abutment from said one end of the shell when the closure is removed, inserting the socket through the spring with its abutment against the other end thereof, and attaching said closure to the end of the shell to retain the parts in place.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

